News & Events

U12 Lions visit Navan RFC 23 Feb 2013

Mar 03, 2013

Metro League U12 Lansdowne Lions v’s Navan

Lansdowne Lions visited Navan RFC in the Royal County on the 23 Feb to play a Navan U12 team. On arriving we found that the pitches were frozen due to overnight snow and frost. The game started and thankfully the sun came out and the pitches became playable. Our Lansdowne team were very slow to get into the game. Navan played at a high tempo from the start (Maybe more used to the conditions!) Despite the slow start Lansdowne held their own and slowly warmed up. The tackling and rucking were ferocious. Lansdowne as usual varied their play with the forwards and backs combining well to probe the Navan’s defence who defended very well. From a very fast ruck ball by Harry Colbert, our out half Niall Carroll found Senan O’Shea who fixed the Navan defence before passing to our speedster on the wing Paddy Morgan. Paddy danced around the opposition to score in the corner. The match was played with a huge intensity with both teams defending and attacking in equal measure with the majority of the play between the two ‘22s’. The referee was a qualified AIL referee that ensured that all the boys remained honest. Navan eventually scored with a fine run on the wing by the winger. Our forwards in particular the ‘three amigos’ Lee Barron, Hugo O’Malley and Jack Byrne carried well and made good yardage. Navan however were very clever in that they held up our big forwards in the ‘choke tackle’.

The second did not lessen in intensity. Louis Clarke, David Madigan and Evan Boyle in the pack were ferocious in their rucking with our arch poacher Tom Cullen providing quick ball. Lansdowne were very unlucky not to score another try when a 2 man overlap was wasted with the final pass going slightly behind Paddy Morgan. Sam Small and James Tynan continued to probe the Navan defence on the back of good ruck ball ( our forwards were now going to ground quicker after gaining good yards) and again were unlucky to score. Navan were very unlucky not to score in the second half after a fine run by their winger who was unfortunate to have a foot in touch. Lansdowne fitness levels were beginning to tell as Navan were having to defend much more with great moves by Harry Colbert, Niall Carroll, Senan O’Shea and Harry Clarke.

The game failed to produce more scores which is a testament to the great defence on both sides.